It’s the big shindig for the Mobile Marketing Association in San Diego, US, today. It is also the swan song of outgoing MMA president Laura Marrott. Reading Laura’s in depth interview with mobiThinking brings home just how much the MMA and mobile marketing has come on during her three-and-a-half year tenure. 200,000 air miles a year… that really is above and beyond the call of duty. Laura’s successor – whoever that might be – has big boots to fill.
Before we turn our attention to the MMA annual awards, we have some statistics to share with you, also courtesy of the MMA. For now we just have the results from six key countries in Western Europe. We’re awaiting Northern America, Latin America and APAC.
Of the 2,599 people polled, 90 percent used mobile phones. 22 percent of the mobile phone users had accessed the mobile web and 9 percent used it regularly (daily or weekly). This included accessing mobile specific web sites, internet browsing and visiting news and sports sites.
Meanwhile 8 percent had participated in a mobile-marketing campaign. Mostly this was text-to-win and receiving information or advertisements about products and services.
33 percent were interested in mobile marketing (NB this was down from 44 percent last year). Mobile users in Italy, Spain and Ireland, were considerably more receptive than in France, Germany and UK. The youth market (18-24) was most interested. Receiving coupons (16 percent) topped the wish list.
The MMA Annual Award Ceremony
It is easy to write-off award ceremonies as nauseatingly self-congratulatory: mini Oscars with lots of air kissing and flash photography, even a bit of whooping. OK so all that’s a little dull if you aren’t on the A-list – or an accomplished social climber – but a good award ceremony presents a unique showcase of industry talent… one that we mere mortals would be daft not dissect and learn from.
mobiThinking is gagging to find out who the winners are, but we’d love to have the time to take a peak at as many of the finalists campaigns as possible. We’ve already been sent a couple of case studies – and spotted a few more here – and we’re promised a few insights from the mobilarti, when the hangovers subside.
Glancing at the long list of finalists you do tend to notice trends among the campaigns. Does this represent more mobile marketing in these vertical sectors, or are just a few companies spending more on cutting-edge campaigns with the big-gun agencies?
There was a strong showing from:
- 1. Food and beverage (particularly alcohol), e.g. Kraft Foods, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Guinness, Strongbow, VB, Absolut, Anheuser-Busch, Jacobs, Nescafe
2. Entertainment and broadcast, e.g. Virgin Mobile Music Festival, Paramount Pictures, ABC.com/The Oscars, The Weather Channel – more on The Weather Channel here
3. Clothing brands, e.g Polo Ralph Lauren, Nike, adidas
4. Toiletries, e.g. Lynx, Unilever Seda Teens Shampoo, Dove
5. Phone operators and manufacturers, e.g. Nokia, iPhone/Airtel, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Vodafone
6. Car manufacturers, e.g. Citroën, BMW, Jaguar Cars
7. Retail, e.g. Walmart, IKEA
Some agencies crop up on the finalist list time and again: Mobile Dreams Factory, in particular, others include Pontomobi Interactive, The Hyperfactory, AURA Interactive, R/GA, TigerSpike and BBH. Several of these were cited by Laura Marriot in her interview.
The winners of MMA Awards for 2008 will be available here from Friday 14 November. Case studies should follow in a week or so.
What can we learn from these campaigns? Comment below or email: editor (at) mobiThinking.com.
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